regarding the kit itself, just the modifications made to it. If you
would like information on the J5 kit itself, there are build
instructions available on Lynxmotion’s site ( www.lynxmot
ion.com) that are quite detailed and accurate. You might see me
make reference to some components I have not yet fully
explained. This is because I am writing in the order that I would
have built it had I been in possession of every component
from the beginning, rather than designing and redesigning
as I went along. It is also assumed that you have a stock of
various length (ranging from 1/4” to 1-1/4”) 2-56 and 4-40
screws. For reference, Figure 1 shows a stock Johnny 5 kit.

Torso

Additional Parts Required:

• L Connector

• Electronics carrier

• Four 1-1/2” Nylon hex standoffs

• Eight 3/8” Nylon hex standoffs

• Three 4” Hot Bodies threaded shocks T-Maxx

• Traxxis steering block pair

(check the parts list for sources.)

with all I planned on adding they would simply not suffice.

The two tension springs were replaced with three R/C
shocks (any 4” R/C car shock will do; I picked mine up from
the local hobby store): one in the front and two in the rear.
The shocks were considerably longer than the tension springs,
so the two C brackets needed to be separated to increase
the length of the lower torso to accommodate the shocks.
I bored out the SES mount holes on the two C brackets to
4-40 and used four 1-1/2” nylon hex standoffs to form the
extension between the brackets. The front shock was a
drop-in replacement for the tension spring, however, the
rear shock assembly needed additional clearance.

Again, the hobby store provided a solution — I mounted
two Traxxis steering blocks on the rear side of the top and
bottom lower torso servos, which then provided enough
clearance to mount the two rear shocks. Four 3/8”
standoffs were installed on either side of the blocks to
allow enough space to mount the two rear shocks side by
side. Refer to Figure 3 to see the end result. Overall, this
modification provided much more stability and payload
capacity for the upper torso and I learned a valuable lesson:
R/C shocks look awesome on robots!

The ideal mounting location for the Pico ITX board is
behind the rotating base of the robot. By default, the SSC-
32 servo controller sits here but to make room for the Pico
ITX board, I decided to move the SSC- 32 to the rear torso.
To do this, I used an L connector mounted to the side of
the brushed aluminum U channel which makes up the
center vertical torso. This created a rear facing SES mount
to attach four 3/8” standoffs to (once I bored out the holes
to 4-40 diameter). This, in turn, is where I mounted the
electronics carrier and SSC- 32. Refer to Figure 2 for a close-up of what the final product looks like. This ended up
working quite well, as the majority of the servos are located
in the upper torso and arms. Having the SSC- 32 in a
centralized position makes wire management much easier.

The lower torso is comprised of two servos that are
operated from the same channel via a Y-splitter cable, connected together with two C brackets back to back. Ballast
for the upper torso is added in the form of two tension
springs on the front and rear. This arrangement allows the
torso to shift forward and back. In stock form the two tension springs provide sufficient ballast, however, I knew that